Andi chuckled softly.
"Oh yes, I've met Paige."
Sheila had to laugh. Even if this woman was her own rival, Paige was out of her league, no matter what she thought.
"Poor Paige, she's been crushing on Hector since she was old enough to spell it." Sheila said. "It's cute, almost...." Of
course, if Paige's thoughts were going where Sheila's were, she'd turn it up a notch. "I remember when I was that
age...." Sheila laughed. "actually I was nothing like Paige at that age. So how long are you in town for?" She asked,
assuming...hoping...that she'd leave Hector behind, that they were friends, that she had misread everything so far.
"I didn't have any idea you could even *be* that way when I was her age." Andi agreed with a chuckle. And then her
face softened and she looked over at the woman next to her. Like a doctor about to deliver bad news, Sheila thought.
"I'm not sure." Andi answered softly. "I'm staying as long he is, you see."
"Oh." Sheila said, her smile faltering a bit as she nodded. "Well, that's nice." Her eyes drifted back over to Hector, who
seemed oblivious to everything besides the mower, the grass and whatever music he had blaring into his ears. Men
were awfully oblivious, even if they were gorgeous. Sometimes, especially if they were gorgeous.
"How, exactly, did you two meet anyway?" She asked, drinking her tea. Idly wondering in that not serious way, if
Hector would notice if she went missing. Andi that was. Not that she would ever do something that extreme, but it was
a nice distracting thought.
"He came by where I work." Andi offered her answer. Looking back at Hector as well. Feeling a bit guilty. She knew
Hector was more than she had any right to ask for or expect. She was being spoiled. Missionary child, she was used
to looking and not having. So she knew the feeling. And she felt a bit guilty that she had something the other woman
wanted. Like the one child on the playground with ice cream. She couldn't help but feel the echo of exactly what the
other woman felt, or at least eventually would once she realized how permanent a fixture in Hector's life Andi was
going to become. Because Andi wasn't about to share and she already knew there weren't simply extra Hectors lying
around. There was just one. And he belonged to her now.
"Where do you work?" Sheila asked. Trying to get a handle on the unexpected new factor in Hector's life. If she could
find a way to categorize the British woman, she could figure out what to do next.
"Africa." Andi supplied. Glancing over at her because she'd expected the surprise that had Sheila turning to focus
entirely on her. She smiled softly at the other woman. "I worked at a Red Cross camp. Hector and some of his men
stopped by for a few days." She gave a small humming exhale and looked back at the man mowing the lawn. "And
then he came back alone the next time. And came back again after that. And again after that."
"Well, a Red Cross camp would be more neutral and peaceful ground than he's used to." Sheila said, having a better
grip on what Hector did for a living than Paige did. "I can understand that." In complete and utter denial about the
words behind the words. By choice.
She examined Andi. Not merely looking at her, but examined her. To see what all the fuss was about. She was tall,
thin, and had an...interesting face. As a rival, Sheila would never go as far as to even think of the other woman as
remotely pretty. Long limbed.
Then she looked back toward Hector. "But it’s good he's home. We've all missed him. We're a pretty tight knit
community."
"So I'm hearing." Andi agreed. After all, it wasn't every town where the baker jumped across the counter to tackle you.
Or the girl across the road was a stalker. It wasn't - quite - everyone in everyone else's back pocket. But it was close.
And wasn't for lack of trying on some fronts.
"I'm flattered he brought me." Andi admitted. "He talked about here almost as soon as I met him. Its good to be able to
see it for myself."
Sheila had to take that one on the chin. Hector? Talking? Since when? It wasn't that he didn't talk at all. It was just he
never talked about - anything. Well, weather or the Yankees but that was about the extent. He was a guy's guy in that
area. You literally couldn't pry anything else out of him.
You had to pry it out of other people.
Sheila suddenly realized, with an unpleasant jolt, that the woman next to her was implying she didn't just share his
bed. Which would have been bad enough. Especially if even half her private fantasies were true. But - Hector didn't
just chat. She looked over at the woman next to her who was still watching the work going on in the yard. Realized -
she was doing more than simply watching Hector. She was watching for 'visitors'. Like Sheila.
"So how long have you known each other?" It was blatant pumping for information but the Brit - African - whatever she
was seemed to not only not mind but make it easy. Sheila got what that implied. Glancing over, Andi replied calmly:
"Oh, a little over a year."
A year? It took this slip of a woman a year to attach herself so strongly to the neighborhood heart throb that he not
only 'chatted' with her but brought her home all the way from Africa to his beloved grandparents' house? Was he
freaking nuts?!
Obviously he had cracked up in his time overseas and just didn't know it yet. Picking some random woman and
bringing her home....something had to be done to save that man.
"He's the quiet one of the neighborhood." She said, still thinking of ways to save her neighbor. "No one knows he's
home until he announces it by visiting or starting home repairs. He always finds something to fix."
Andi chortled.
"Walking around without a shirt on should have done the trick." She commented without looking away from him. "I
swear Paige can smell him when he's missing clothes." She raised an arm and waved. Because - sure enough Paige
had just come down her own driveway with a couple bottles of something and her shirt tied up to show off her nicely
curved waist and hips.
"I think she does. Wouldn't surprise me if she had a telescope in her room." Sheila said, waving also at Paige.
Paige waved back to the women. Sheila was on the porch with that woman. Which was fine with her. Why sit on the
porch when she could flirt? Besides, she had played nice yesterday, hanging out with Mrs Johnson when she should
have been setting the world right, or at least as how Paige thought the world would be.
She just needed Hector to wake up was all.
She crossed the street easily and pushed her hair off her shoulders to show off that great tan she was working on. A
tan her clothes did little to hide anyway. Tanned skin was so much more healthy looking than sickly pale, one step
from the morgue skin, right?
"Hey." She said to Hector, standing just off to the side of him and his lawn mower, appreciating the sight of him in a
pair of cut off sweat pants and sneakers. She wasn't much of a baseball fan, but if being a baseball fan encompassed
really liking the way he looked in his hat, then count her in.
"What?" Hector said, seeing Paige and taking his headphones off, talking over the mower.
Andi started to chuckle. It started off as a soft cough and shifted right over into almost silent laughter. She actually
ended up leaning forward slightly and resting her fingers over her lips. Sheila looked over at her and couldn't help the
grin of her own that changed into chuckles.
"Damn." She swore softly. "That girl could teach the devil a thing or two about brass."
Andi's laughter died down but stayed in her face and her eyes.
"How horrible of me is it that I'm leaving him to her mercies?" She asked with a twinkle in her eyes.
"Pretty cruel." Sheila answered with a shake of her head and another sip of her tea. "I wouldn't leave a dog to that
girl's 'mercies'." The woman next to her was a threat and a problem. The young woman on the lawn - it was hard
seeing Paige as anything other than the scrawny kid she'd always been in Sheila's mind. Hector didn't need that and
had the common sense to realize it at least. But damn - the girl was persistent if nothing else.
"Drinks." Paige had no issues with raising her voice to be heard and she lifted the bottles to wave them lightly.
"Figured you'd be thirsty." After all, she was being more thoughtful than the girls on the porch. Just sitting there in the
shade with their feet up while he did all the work. Well, while they drooled, she'd win the race by acting.
Hector raised an eyebrow at the two beers she was holding up, fresh from a cooler he'd judge by the condensation
running off the sides.
"Nah, I'm good." He said instead. "Besides, alcohol dehydrates you further. At least that's what a certain doctor I know
told me once." He said with a wink and looked over, fully expecting to see Andi on the porch.
But of course she was making no movement to go get the hose she had threatened to get earlier. No, she was
chatting quite pleasantly with Sheila, both looking oh so very amused.
"Well, I won't tell you if don't." Paige teased with a grin. More than a little pleased by his smile and his wink. Not to
mention the glance at the girls on the porch. Just showed the difference between them. Hector wasn't the kind of man
that wanted a woman that couldn't fall in next to him when it came time to work. "Besides," she lifted her hair off the
back of her neck with her free hand. Showed off all kinds of assets on her from her wavy hair and non-giraffe neck all
the way to the hint of cleavage shifting her arm provided. "It's getting hot. You deserve a break."
"Oh. Hair move." Andi commented. "I was warned about that."
"She's telling him it’s hot." Sheila, who'd seen the move before - and seen it work on lesser men, agreed, shifting
forward in her seat. She'd figure out how to deal with the woman next to her eventually. At the moment they both had
Paige to concentrate on instead.
"If she put her hair up in a pony tail, she wouldn't have that problem." Andi pointed out practically and Sheila started
to chuckle again.
Hector took his cap off and ran a hand through his hair before putting the cap back on and shook his head. "Don't
drink." He said simply. He'd done everything in his power to NOT be like his father, and abstaining from alcohol was
one of the first steps he'd taken. In his adult life he'd had three beers. And NyQuil.
"Besides, operating machinery while under the influence is dangerous." He said with a chuckle.
Sheila snorted as she leaned forward and squinted her eyes. "My, my, my." She said. "Little miss all that brought over
two Budweisers. How thoughtful." Then she chuckled and settled back in her chair. "Course, I've never seen Hector
drink as long as he's been here." She was more in Hector's age bracket than Paige, after all, and had had more
chances for adult interaction.
One should never count out the neighborhood tart, after all. And Sheila knew men could be weak and tempted with
sex to say the least. Good to know Paige was still striking out.